EU-CELAC Policy Dialogue

The EU-CELAC Strategic Partnership

Strategic Partnership between the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) seeks to promote options for a socio-economic model where knowledge transfer, education and sustainable development bring countries and regions closer together while reducing poverty levels and social exclusion, creating opportunities for all.

Bi regional political dialogue takes place at different levels and on a wide range of issues including research and innovation as well as other global issues. Additionally, cooperation programmes and projects are being carried out in many fields to support this dialogue.

This partnership was first launched in June 1999 at the first EU-LAC Summit of Heads of State and Government in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Since then, Summits have been held approximately every two years, accompanied by an increasing number of initiatives by governments and non-governmental actors that take place between and alongside the Summits. In essence, the Strategic Partnership between both regions is a political process between the governments of both regions to deepen their relations and develop a joint global vision.

Since 2010 the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is the EU’s counterpart for the bi-regional partnership process.

During the 2010EU-CELAC Summit in Madrid, the EU and CELAC agreed to establish an EU-CELAC Action Plan, whereby “science, research, innovation and technology” constitutes an independent chapter. In addition, the Joint Initiative on Research and Innovation (JIRI) was adopted aimed among others, to “establish regular bi-regional dialogue on science, research, technology and innovation to consolidate EU-CELAC cooperation and to update common priorities, encourage mutual policy learning and ensure the proper implementation and effectiveness of cooperation instruments”.

Since 2011, annual Senior Officials’ Meetings (SOM) have been organized in order to support the implementation of the JIRI. In the beginning of this process Working Groups were established in order to develop concrete joint activities for future collaboration in thematic and cross-cutting areas in the field of Energy, Information and Communications Technology, Bioeconomy, Biodiversity & Climate Change and Health (added at a later stage). An additional horizontal group on Good Practices and Funding Mechanisms and Careers Development was defined.

As the bi-regional partnership evolved over the years, the Common Research Area was announced at the EU-CELAC Summit in June 2015 and adopted at the V EU-CELAC Senior Officials Meeting in March 2016 with the aim to further strengthen the bi-regional partnership in R&I by synchronizing the manifold and various activities conducted by many different parties in both regions under three pillars: “mobility of researchers”, “international outreach of research infrastructures” and “jointly addressing global challenges”.

During the VI SOM in 2017, the European Commission also announced the launch of a new initiative in support of the CELAC countries in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goalsthrough the deployment of an external independent advice.

I Summit of Head of State and Government of Latin America and the Caribeann and the European Union. Rio de Janeiro, 28 - 29 June, 1999

Rio Declaration

The JIRI policy dialogue has been effectively supported by several initiatives and bi-regional projects such as ALCUE NET, ERANet-LAC and EU-LAC Health, among others. These projects have had a key role in planning and implementing concrete joint activities and in creating a sustainable framework for future bi-regional joint activities. In fact, they implemented the work done by each of the JIRI Working Groups in the 6 areas identified as common priorities.